Although an official proposal has not been made, Russellville Superintendent Danny Taylor is concerned about how his school district would be affected by one of the most popular unofficial facilities funding proposals.

Taylor said one of the funding formulas he has heard about frequently in Little Rock would make Little Rock School District the standard to which all other school districts would be funded to match.

"Once again, we would be left out of this funding formula," Taylor said. "We would receive no money for facilities improvements if this goes through the legislature."

According to Taylor, the formula ranks school districts by how much money per mill per average daily membership (ADM) the district receives. Any district that receives more per ADM than Little Rock would not receive any money for facility improvements.

Little Rock currently receives $103.74 per mill per ADM, while Russellville receives $112.56 per mill per ADM. Nine school districts, including Russellville, receive more per mill per ADM than Little Rock, excluding all nine from the funding formula.

Taylor said this creates not only a problem of inequity, it would leave many districts underfunded as well.

"Some of the districts that would receive some funding according to this formula, would not receive an adequate amount anyway," Taylor said.

Other school districts that would not receive any funding include Eureka Springs, Fountain Lake, Cedar Ridge, Armorel, West Side Cleburne County, Jessieville, Ashdown and Gravette.

Those same school districts rank the lowest in the public education funding formula in the amount of state funding they receive. Russellville School District receives $2,952 per student from the state, based on the 2003-04 third quarter average daily membership of 5,068 students. That amount ranks the district 247th out of 254 school districts in Arkansas

Ashdown, Jessieville, West Side of Cleburne County, Armorel, Cedar Ridge, Fountain Lake and Eureka Springs all receive less money per student from the state.

Taylor said he has tried to convince legislators to come up with a formula that is fair to all school districts. He said he believes each district should be evaluated to determine the cost of getting its facilities up to standard. Then, the district should be allocated that amount of money from the state to get its buildings to standard.

By using that method, Taylor said, all school facilities statewide would be at the standard level.

"If they come here and determine Russellville needs $2 million worth of improvements, then they should give us $2 million," Taylor said. "If another district needs $4 million to bring its facilities up to standard, they should get $4 million. I won't have a problem with that because it will make everyone even. It will bring us all up to standard. Then, we can start from there, from a level playing field."

The legislature recently heard a report from the Arkansas Statewide Educational Facilities Assessment that stated $2.3 billion worth of improvements were needed to the state's educational facilities. However, legislators are currently re-evaluating the study to determine where improvements are actually needed and how to fund those improvements.

Taylor said because the state mandated this study, it should fund any improvements that are required as a result of the study.

"If they're going to come in and say we need to spend $1 million on our facilities, that's fine," he said. "But they need to give us the funding to do that."

Determining the standard

Taylor said the biggest obstacle the legislature has to overcome now is determining what the standard is for school facilities. According to Taylor, legislators will have to move from looking for an "ideal" standard to a "reasonable" standard.

"The key is to determine what is reasonable," Taylor said. "Every school building in the state was evaluated through use of a newly developed, 500-page 'ideal school facility' standards manual.

The money required to satisfy the deficiencies of current buildings to the "ambitious standards" stated in the 500-page document is estimated to be between $2.3 billion and $4.5 billion over the next 10 years, Taylor said.

"Obviously, this is a huge sum, and, if state-level political planning becomes reality, Russellville will be left out of state funds for facility improvements," Taylor said. "The best path for the state, and Russellville in particular, is for the 500-page facility standards document to be reduced from 'ideal' to 'adequate' standards."

Taylor said that adjustment would make more sense and be more in line with what the Supreme Court ordered from the Lake View case. In that case, the court put the burden on the legislature to make public schools in Arkansas adequate and equitable.

"Adequate facilities were required in the Lake View decision," Taylor said. "Individuals with good intentions placed their ideals in the standards document and moved much further than what the Supreme Court stated in Lake View. The state needs 'adequate' standards not 'ideal' facility standards."